In the japanese anime series 'Fullmetal Alchemist', the main character, Edward Elric, gets very insulted when anyone refers to his height as being short, small, a pipsqueak or a shrimp. He is apparantley 15 and 4'11".

Interestingly, after centuries of increasing average height, largely down to better nutrition and healthcare, it is now thought that the average height of American males is decreasing, and for the first time the average height of British males is greater.

At least according to John Komlos et al., who have been working in this field.
See also, for a summary, this article in The Guardian.

In the japanese anime series 'Fullmetal Alchemist', the main character, Edward Elric, gets very insulted when anyone refers to his height as being short, small, a pipsqueak or a shrimp. He is apparantley 15 and 4'11".

In fact, since he is a cartoon character. his actual height is more likely to be in the region of 1 or 2 inches.

Interestingly, after centuries of increasing average height, largely down to better nutrition and healthcare, it is now thought that the average height of American males is decreasing, and for the first time the average height of British males is greater.

That is interesting. I'm British, 6'1" and worked in Wisconsin, USA for 6 months in 1985. I feel tall in UK, I felt average or maybe even below-average height for a male in Wisconsin at that time. Something to do with their dairy-intensive diet, perhaps. Similar reason why Netherlands has such tall people.

In fact, the very idea that various peoples are programmed, on average, to be short or tall is thrown into doubt by Komlos's work. Apart from a few rare races, such as African pygmies who are genetically programmed to have low stature, virtually everyone in the world has the potential to reach the same average height as the Dutch, and that includes the Mexicans, Chinese, Inuit, and other peoples who are not usually noted for their stature.

Which is also interesting. I visited China in 2006 and was surprised not to find the population particularly shorter than Europeans. Around the Beijing area, they seemed as tall as north Europeans, possibly taller than Mediterrean Europeans - which I had not been expecting.

This contrasts with the Japanese I've met who have been visiting UK - they have almost universally been of short stature.

I've not read all of the research, but certainly diet (and climate - which affects production, which affects diet) has been directly linked to stature historically.

For recent variations, the stature and health of the average Briton improved during and post-war in large part due to rationing which is part of how we began to catch up to the Americans who had long enjoyed - on average - a far better diet. It is noted in that article that a contributing factor in the decline of the American average is the diet of the underprivileged - which supports the observations Gruff made about Wisconsin.

Oddly, though, Japan claims a very similar average height to the UK (though not to the Netherlands) and, again, this is attributed to the adoption of more western diet, which has led to all manner of things having to be lengthened or raised to accommodate a generation which is far taller than its forbears. Interestingly, Japanese average height increased steadily for a long time and then decreased, only beginning to rise again recently - this is being linked to population density.